SONY and Kadokawa Group have strengthened their collaboration to maximize their intellectual property

Sony to raise stake in anime producer Kadokawa to 10%, boost IP deals

Further strengthening collaboration to maximize both companies’ IP value globally

KADOKAWA CORPORATION (“KADOKAWA”) and Sony Group Corporation (“Sony”)  signed a strategic capital and business alliance agreement, agreeing to conduct a third-party allotment by KADOKAWA to Sony on January 7, 2025, with Sony acquiring 12,054,100 new KADOKAWA shares for approximately 50 billion yen. With the acquisition of the new shares, Sony will become KADOKAWA’s largest shareholder, holding approximately 10% of its shares, including the shares Sony previously acquired in February 2021.

Needless to say, Sony and Kadokawa will collaborate on several projects, such as adapting the latter company’s intellectual properties to live-action TV or cinema, co-producing new anime works, and expanding the publishing of Kadokawa’s games.

KADOKAWA and Sony historically have collaborated on various projects, and through this capital and business alliance, intend to further strengthen our collaboration to maximize both companies’ IP value globally and facilitate wider and deeper collaboration, such as potential joint investments in the content field, joint discovery of new creators, and joint promotion of further media mixes of both companies’ IP. In the future, the two companies plan to discuss specific initiatives for collaboration, such as initiatives to adapt KADOKAWA’s IP into live-action films and TV dramas globally, co-produce anime works, expand global distribution of KADOKAWA’s anime works through the Sony Group, further expand publishing of KADOKAWA’s games, and develop human resources to promote and expand virtual production.

Comment from Takeshi Natsuno, Chief Executive Officer, KADOKAWA CORPORATION

“We are very pleased to conclude this capital and business alliance agreement with Sony. This alliance is expected to not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony’s support for global expansion, allowing us to deliver our IP to more users around the world. We are confident that this will greatly contribute to maximizing the value of our IP and increasing our corporate value in the mid- to long-term. We intend to do our utmost to ensure that our collaborative efforts with Sony produce great results in the global market.”

Hiroki Totoki, President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation, added:

Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of IP, including publications and books, such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime. By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony, which has promoted the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely together to realize Kadokawa’s ‘Global Media Mix’ strategy, aimed at maximizing the value of its IP, and Sony’s long-term vision, ‘Creative Entertainment Vision.

Non-PlayStation gamers have been wary that this could mean FromSoftware’s games would become exclusive to Sony’s consoles, but this is doubtful. In all likelihood, the main goal of this collaboration is to adapt Kadokawa’s franchises to other media.